2016 Honda Civic makes its debut with Android Auto
It seems like Honda has been on a roll with Android. The 2016 Honda Pilot and Accord actually run Android 4.2.2. In addition the 2016 Accord has support for Android Auto and Apple CarPlay.
Yesterday Honda showed off its all new 2016 Honda Civic sedan in live YouTube stream and announced among other things that the new Civic would be their next vehicle to debut with Android Auto.
In addition to Android Auto and Apple CarPlay the new Civic will debut with the following features.
- Available Honda Sensing – including Collision Mitigation Braking, Road Departure Mitigation and, for the first time in a Honda, Adaptive Cruise Control with Low-Speed Follow
- New 2.0l 4cyl base engine with 155hp
- New available 1.5-liter, direct-injected and turbocharged 16-valve DOHC inline-4 with 170hp
- 40mpg+ tagerted EPA gas mileage
- New Civic hatchback bodystyle
- Type R model for US market
- 7-inch high-definition Display Audio touchscreen
- Available LED exterior lighting, including new Honda LED headlights (in-line type), LED daytime running lights (standard) and distinctive C-shaped LED taillights (also standard)
- 25% more body rigidity
- 12% more aerodynamic
- Flush-mounted acoustic glass windshield
- Variable gear ratio steering
- Standard 4-wheel disc brakes
- Beefier front and rear stabilizer bars
- Agile Handling Assist brake-torque vectoring technology
- An additional 3.7 cubic feet of interior space
- 2 inches of added rear-seat legroom
- Trunk space has been increased by 2.6 cubic feet
- New Touring Trim level
- 450 watt 10 speaker audio system (Touring only)
- Standard automatic climate control
- Auto-up/down front power windows
- Electronic parking brake with Brake Hold
- Walk-Away auto door locks
- Adjustable driver’s seat thigh support with 14 degrees of tilt (EX-L and above)
- Larger, reconfigurable new center console with up to 7.2 liters of secure storage space
- 4-way power front passenger’s seat
I think we can also speculate that based on the YouTube video at 29:07, the new Civic will also have Android 4.2.2 just like the 2016 Accord.
What do you think? Does this announcement put the Civic on your radar? Let us know in the comments below.
The post 2016 Honda Civic makes its debut with Android Auto appeared first on AndroidGuys.
Amazon announces seven new devices for Fire tablet, Fire TV portfolio
Tablets begin shipping in September with Fire TV units commencing next month
Amazon, as it is often wont to do this time of year, has announced new models in its Fire lineup of tablets and TV products. For 2015 Amazon has expanded its portfolio a bit, bringing in a new low price point ($50) for its standard 7-inch model while changing things up on the larger side, too. And, over on the TV front, the company has bolstered that family with new hardware and software capabilities.
Here’s a quick breakdown of what’s in store for the seven new devices rolling out this fall.
Tablets
Fire tablet – Setting the bar for what can be had at a very attractive price, the new tablet retails for $50. Hardware features include a quad-core processor, 7-inch IPS display, cameras on the front and back, 8GB storage, with microSD support (up to 128GB). Powered by Fire OS “Bellini”, the new tablet also comes loaded with Amazon Underground and provides quick and easy discovery of content, deals, and more. Amazon will also sell this tablet in a “Buy 5, get 1 free” deal. That’s six tablets for $250. Pre-order today with shipping expected on September 30.
Fire HD 8 and Fire HD 10 – Offered in 8-inch and 10.1-inch versions, these two models will be offered in a variety of colors. The 8-inch has four color options: black, magenta, blue, and tangerine; the 10.1-inch is sold in black and white. . The smaller comes with 8GB and 16GB options while the larger has 16GB and 32GB capacities.
The displays are protected by Gorilla Glass to ensure they withstand the scratches and scuffs that come with taking them everywhere. Also running the 5.0 Bellini OS, other standout features include Dolby Audio with 5.1 virtual surround sound and expandable storage capacity (up to 128GB).
Pricing shakes out to $149 (8GB) and $169 (16GB) for the Fire HD 8 and the Fire HD 10 is $229 (16GB) and $259 (32GB) as long as you let Amazon place the occasional sponsored ads. To remove that option runs an extra $15. Pre-order today with shipping expected on September 30.
Fire Kids Edition – A refresh of the child-centric model introduced last fall, this one comes in with a lower price point for 2015. What’s more, the kid-proof case has been updated in the process. Toss in one year of Amazon FreeTime Unlimited and a two-year guarantee and you’ve got a bargain for $100.
Fire TV
Fire TV and Fire TV Stick with Voice Remote – The TV units pick up support for 4K Ultra HD this year as well as the Alexa technology found in the standalone Amazon unit. The Fire TV sells for $100 with shipments starting October 5. The Fire TV Stick retails for $40 with the standard remote or $50 if you bundle it with a Voice Remote. Shipping begins October 22 for the HDMI-based dongle.
Fire TV Gaming Edition – A new version of the console-like unit, this one includes the 2015 Fire TV, the new Fire TV Game Controller, a 32 GB microSD card, and two popular games: Shovel Knight and Disney’s Ducktales. Worth roughly $190, it’s bundled together for $140 and starts shipping October 5.
The post Amazon announces seven new devices for Fire tablet, Fire TV portfolio appeared first on AndroidGuys.
Amazon announces new Fire TV Box with 4K video streaming and Alexa digital assistant
Fast on the heels of revealing the Fire tablet with a price tag of just $50, Amazon has announced the new Fire TV set-top box. Besides sporting a 64-bit quad-core MediaTek processor, the 2015 Fire TV includes Amazon’s digital assistant, Alexa, as well as supporting 4K video streams.
As you can see, this year’s Fire TV appears virtually identical to last year’s model in terms of cosmetics, but it differs quite a bit internally. This year’s model is said to offer 75% more processing power than the previous model that was powered by the Snapdragon 600. Let’s take a closer look at what else this year’s Fire TV has to offer.
Specifications:
- Fire OS 5 Bellini
- MediaTek Quad-core processor (64-bit) Dual-core @ 2.0GHz + Dual-core @ 1.6GHz
- PowerVR GX6250 GPU
- 2GB RAM
- 8GB Internal storage
- MicroSD card slot (up to 128GB)
- Dual-band, dual-antenna WiFi, supporting 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac
- Ethernet port 10/100
- Bluetooth 4.1
- USB 2.0 port
- Support for 4K (Ultra HD) video streams
- Video formats: H.265, H.264
- Output resolution: 2160p up to 30fps, 720p & 1080p up to 60fps
- Audio formats: AAC-LC, AC3, eAC3(Dolby Digital Plus), FLAC, MP3, PCM/Wave, Vorbis, Dolby Atmos
- Image formats: JPEG, PNG, GIF, BMP
- Dolby Audio/ Dolby surround sound
- Remote with Voice support
- Dimensions: 115 x 115 x 7.8mm
- Weight: 270 grams
The 2015 Fire TV comes with a $99/£79 price tag, while in the US there is also the option to buy the Fire TV Gaming Edition for $135 which comes with a Fire TV games controller and 2 free games (Shovel Knight and Disney DuckTales: Remastered). UK readers can add the games controller to the basket separately for £39. The Fire TV is available to pre-order right now, and is scheduled to begin shipping from October 5.
Full Press Release:
SEATTLE–(BUSINESS WIRE)–(NASDAQ: AMZN)—Last year, Amazon introduced the first Amazon Fire TV, combining voice search that actually works, fast and powerful performance, and an open ecosystem to deliver the easiest way to watch Netflix, Amazon Video, HBO NOW, Hulu, WatchESPN, and more on your big-screen TV. Since launch, Fire TV has become the #1 best-selling Amazon device category, with Fire TV Stick quickly becoming Amazon’s fastest-selling product ever. Today, Amazon is making those best-selling products even better. Introducing the next generation of Fire TV—the new Amazon Fire TV with support for 4K Ultra HD, and the new Fire TV Stick with Voice Remote.
“The new Fire TV includes 4K support, more processing power, Alexa integration, the largest selection, and exclusive features—for less than $100. The new Fire TV Stick with Voice Remote brings voice search and Alexa integration for less than $50. These are powerful devices at incredible prices.”
The new Amazon Fire TV is available for pre-order today for just $99.99 www.amazon.com/fire-tv and will start shipping on October 5. Fire TV Stick with Voice Remote is available for pre-order today for $49.99 at www.amazon.com/fire-tv-voice and will start shipping October 22. Fire TV Stick is also still available for purchase for $39.99 at www.amazon.com/fire-tv-stick.
Fire TV devices have the most channels, apps, and games of any streaming media player, and are the easiest way to enjoy movies, TV shows, music, and live TV from services such as Netflix, Amazon Video, HBO NOW, Hulu, WatchESPN, SHOWTIME ANYTIME, Sling TV, STARZ PLAY, ENCORE PLAY, NBC News, Prime Music, Spotify, Pandora, Vevo, Plex, A&E, YouTube.com, and more. Plus, the new Amazon Fire TV provides access to more 4K Ultra HD movies than any other streaming media player, with 4K content from Netflix, Amazon Video, and Prime Video. Already available in 4K are shows and movies from Amazon Video such as Transparent, Better Call Saul, American Hustle, and Amazing Spiderman 2, as well as shows and movies such as Narcos and Marvel’s Daredevils from Netflix.
“The team has packed an incredible amount of technology and innovation into a tiny package,” said Jeff Bezos, Amazon.com Founder and CEO. “The new Fire TV includes 4K support, more processing power, Alexa integration, the largest selection, and exclusive features—for less than $100. The new Fire TV Stick with Voice Remote brings voice search and Alexa integration for less than $50. These are powerful devices at incredible prices.”
The All-New Amazon Fire TV—Tiny Box, Huge Performance—$99.99
True-to-Life Picture Quality with 4K Ultra HD
4K Ultra HD is the next generation of entertainment and delivers a more realistic entertainment experience with 4x the resolution of 1080p. Amazon Fire TV is half the price of any other 4K Ultra HD streaming media player. With 4K support for Prime Video, Amazon Video, and Netflix, Fire TV also provides access to more 4K Ultra HD movies than any other device. Movies and TV shows already available in 4K include award-winning shows like Transparent, Better Call Saul, and Orphan Black, and blockbuster movies such as Captain Phillips, Men in Black 3, andMoney Ball—with more being added regularly.
Better HD Video Quality for More Customers
The new Amazon Fire TV is built to support High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC). In the coming months, the new Amazon Fire TV will deliver more 1080p high-definition streams from Amazon Video than ever before with HEVC—even if you don’t own a 4K TV. HEVC is roughly 2x more efficient at encoding video than the current industry standard, H264, so less bandwidth is needed to deliver high-quality video streams. As a result, the majority of Fire TV customers will now get to experience high-quality, 1080p TV shows and movies from Amazon Video.
Built for Speed
The first Fire TV delivered industry-leading performance—now, Fire TV is even better, with 75% more processing power, and still less than $100. The new Amazon Fire TV has 5x the processing power of the latest generation Roku, and 8x the processing power of Chromecast. It comes packed with a MediaTek 64-bit quad-core processor, a dedicated GPU, plus 4x the memory of the latest generation Chromecast, and Roku.
Powerful Wi-Fi Performance
Fire TV features the latest standard in Wi-Fi technology—802.11ac MIMO—which gives you faster throughput and longer range for better performance, even if your router is located in another part of the house.
Expandable microSD Storage
In addition to the 8GB of on-device storage, Fire TV now offers expandable storage via microSD card slot for up to 128GB of additional storage for downloaded apps and games.
World-Class Customer Service with Mayday Screen Sharing
Mayday Screen Sharing brings Mayday-powered customer service to the Fire TV streaming box, delivering 24×7, 365 days-a-year technical assistance—for free. When you call customer service by phone, the Amazon expert can remotely connect to your Fire TV—with your permission—to answer any questions you may have or to help troubleshoot. They can draw on the screen, walk you through how to do something, or do it for you—whatever works best.
Audio from Dolby, the Standard in Home Audio
With Dolby Audio, enjoy rich, cinematic surround sound via HDMI to your TV or AV receiver. Plus, Dolby enhances the Bluetooth headphone support on Fire TV, so you get Dolby’s virtual surround sound, consistent quality, and enhanced volume leveling while listening to your favorite movie or TV show with headphones.
Take Gaming to the Next Level
Gaming on Amazon Fire TV has been a customer favorite since launch, providing high-quality, low-cost options for the whole family. The all-new optional Fire TV Game Controller now includes voice search, an audio jack for private listening with Dolby enhancements, refined controls for a better gaming experience, and up to 90 hours of battery life without headphones. Plus, today Amazon introduced the new Amazon Fire TV Gaming Edition, which includes Amazon Fire TV, Game Controller, a 32GB microSD card, and two games—Disney’s Ducktales and Yacht Club’sShovel Knight—all for $139.99. To read the press release about the new Gaming Edition, visit: www.amazon.com/gaming-edition-pr.
The Fire TV Family Gets New and Updated Features—Fire OS 5 Brings New Features to the Full Lineup
Just ask Alexa
Last year, Amazon introduced voice search that actually works—no more hunting and pecking in an alphabet grid to find your favorite TV shows and movies. Now, the convenience of voice is getting even better on Amazon Fire TV with built-in support for Alexa, the brain behind Amazon Echo. With Alexa, Fire TV voice capabilities become even better—simply speak into the voice remote and ask Alexa for the weather, sports scores, traffic, music, and more. Alexa provides natural-language responses, combined with an immersive on-screen display, each time you ask a question on Amazon Fire TV. Just say “Alexa, play some jazz” to listen to your favorite music and simultaneously view album art, song title, and more via the on-screen experience. Say “Alexa, when do the Seahawks play?” to find out when the next game is on, or say “Alexa, how’s the weather tomorrow?” to see if you need to bring your umbrella and simultaneously view the five-day forecast on your big screen TV. Plus, coming next year, use Alexa to find and play TV shows and movies, navigate Amazon Fire TV, launch apps, and more—simply speak into the voice remote and say “Alexa, resume Star Wars;” “Alexa, search for drama movies with Matt Damon;” or “Alexa, play Hunger Games: Catching Fire.” Alexa integration will roll out to all existing Fire TV and Fire TV Stick customers via a free, over-the-air software update.
Largest Selection of Channels, Apps, and Games
Since launch last year, Amazon Fire TV selection of channels, apps, and games has grown by 17x, with over 3,000 apps now available. Customer favorites on Fire TV include Netflix, HBO NOW, WatchESPN, SHOWTIME ANYTIME, HBO GO, Hulu, STARZ PLAY, ENCORE PLAY, YouTube.com, Spotify, Pandora, AT&T U-verse, and Tennis Channel Everywhere. New channels and apps coming soon include FOX NOW, FXNOW, Poker Central, and Turner Classic Movies. Fire TV integrated universal search from the very beginning, and customers have loved being able to easily search across multiple services, including HBO GO, Showtime, Hulu, STARZ PLAY, ENCORE PLAY, and Vevo. Plus, Amazon will be adding over 10 services to universal search by the end of the year, including A&E, HISTORY, Lifetime, and PBS.
Live TV
Now you can watch the big game, breaking news, and more, live and on-demand on Amazon Fire TV—all you need is the internet. With Fire TV, you have access to a variety of live and on-demand video and TV apps such as HBO NOW, Sling TV, NBC News, Tennis Channel Everywhere, and more. With a subscription to Sling TV, you have access to live and on-demand content from channels like ESPN, CNN, TBS, HGTV, and AMC.
Best Device for Prime
With Prime Video, Prime members get access to thousands of movies and TV shows, including Transformers, Wolf of Wall Street, Anchorman 2, The Americans, Justified, and Downton Abbey, at no additional cost. Plus, get access to award-winning Amazon Original Series programming likeTransparent and Tumble Leaf, as well as new shows coming this fall—which will all be available in 4K Ultra HD. With Prime Music, Prime members can listen ad-free to over a million songs from artists like Mumford & Sons, Daft Punk, P!nk, Bruno Mars, Blake Shelton, The Lumineers, Bruce Springsteen, and Madonna—plus, coming early next year, listen to top, curated Prime Music Radio Stations on Fire TV. Use Prime Photos to get unlimited storage for photos, and access them on Fire TV devices to play slideshows or choose a favorite album for the screensaver.
Plus, All the Features Customers Expect from Amazon
Fire TV is not just a gadget—it is a seamlessly integrated service that combines all of the features that customers love about Amazon, Prime, and Fire devices, including:
- Say It, Watch It with voice search that actually works—Simply speak the name of a movie, TV show, actor, director, or genre into the remote on the Amazon Fire TV, the all-new Fire TV Stick with Voice Remote, or the Fire TV Voice Remote App on Fire TV Stick. No more hunting and pecking in an alphabet grid.
- Instant streaming with ASAP—No more waiting for movies and TV shows to buffer. ASAP (Advanced Streaming and Prediction) is now 40% faster on the new Amazon Fire TV, so videos start instantly. ASAP predicts which Amazon movies and TV episodes you want to watch and buffers them for playback before you even hit play, so there’s no waiting.
- Instantly find out who that actor is—X-Ray for Movies and TV Shows is available directly on the TV screen using Amazon Fire TV and Fire TV Stick—simply click the Fire TV Remote and get instant access to actor biographies in the scene, trivia, soundtracks, and more, on tens of thousands of movies and TV episodes. X-Ray for Movies and TV Shows is exclusive to Amazon Video and powered by IMDb—the #1 movie website in the world.
- Simple to set up and easy to use—Arrives pre-registered so you can simply plug it in and start streaming in minutes.
- Screen sharing and display mirroring—Tap the “fling” icon on your Fire tablet to send video and audio to your big screen, or fling services like YouTube, Spotify and Netflix from your Android phone or iPhone. Or, share whatever is on your small screen—including movies and TV shows, music, and photos—with everyone in your living room using display mirroring, which includes support for Fire OS and Android, and devices from Motorola, LG, and Google.
- Personal photos and videos—Play slideshows and choose a favorite album for the screensaver on Fire TV devices. Photos or videos you take via phone or tablet can be automatically uploaded to Amazon Cloud Drive, making them accessible on Fire TV devices.
- Whispersync—Amazon’s Whispersync technology saves and synchronizes your Amazon video and music library across all Amazon devices. Start watching a movie on an iPhone with the Amazon Video app, or on a Fire tablet, and pick up where you left off on Fire TV.
- Watch on hundreds of devices—Buy a movie or TV show from Amazon Video and watch it on hundreds of devices that are compatible with the Amazon Video app, including iOS, Android, and Fire OS devices.
- 1-Tap Archive—Automatically backs up your Amazon digital content in the cloud so you never need to worry about losing content.
- Top-rated, world-class customer service—When you shop on Amazon, buy a Fire TV device, or buy digital content from Amazon, you are also getting Amazon’s world-class customer service.
- Free month of Amazon Prime—Amazon continues to invest in bringing Prime members new movies, TV shows, songs, and books to enjoy at no additional cost. Prime members enjoy unlimited, commercial-free, instant streaming of thousands of movies and TV episodes with Prime Video, and unlimited photo storage in Amazon Cloud Drive. Eligible customers can get a free 30-day trial of Amazon Prime when they purchase an Amazon Fire TV.
Come comment on this article: Amazon announces new Fire TV Box with 4K video streaming and Alexa digital assistant
Amazon announces new Fire Kids Edition tablet
Joining announcements of a new Fire TV Box and the cut-rate Fire Tablet, Amazon also launched a new tablet oriented to children, the Fire Kids Edition tablet. The Fire Kids Edition is a successor to last year’s Fire HD Kids Edition, but the price has been reduced from $149 to only $99. Amazon has started to accept pre-orders today with units shipping on September 30th.
The Fire Kids Edition comes with an updated “kid-proof” case, a Fire tablet, and one year of access to Amazon FreeTime Unlimited. This gives parents access to 20,000 age-appropriate websites and YouTube videos, access to more than 10,000 books, videos, apps and games, and a 2-year guarantee. The tablet itself comes with a quad-core processor, front and rear-facing cameras, and a microSD slot that supports up to 128GB of storage.
Check out Amazon’s full press release below.
|
|
And it will be the gift that keeps giving, as when my other kids are older, we can get the family subscription instead of the single child. WIN!” – KelseyCome comment on this article: Amazon announces new Fire Kids Edition tablet
Amazon announces new line of Kindle Fire HD tablets with Fire OS 5
Amazon has finally taken the wraps off their latest Kindle Fire HD tablets, complete with extremely high resolution screens, powerful processors, and aggressive price points. Pretty much what everyone expected, right?
The Fire HD tablets come in two sizes, so you’ll be able to pick up either an 8-inch or 10-inch variant. They both sport full HD screens, quad-core processors, and expandable storage, plus Amazon’s latest Fire OS 5.
The tablets have some pretty cool features that make them stand out from previous models, especially for anyone that’s heavily invested in Amazon’s ecosystem. They’re both the first models to feature Amazon Underground, which an app store that includes tons of free apps and games that offer free in-app purchases. This sounds pretty similar to the Amazon Unlocked initiative that we heard about a few months back, although we’ll need to wait for more details before we say anything one way or the other.
Another useful trick for Amazon Prime customers is the On Deck feature, which keeps popular movies and TV shows preloaded on your device’s internal storage. The tablet intelligently keeps these available in case you want to access anything offline, but it erases content if you need space for an app or music or anything. That’s a cool feature on paper, especially if it works well and doesn’t require any micromanaging.
You’ll still get Amazon’s MayDay screen sharing help feature, plus tons of other things that were on older models. Customers get completely free photo backup, access to tons of on-demand video, and everything else you’ve come to expect from Amazon’s Fire lineup.
The smaller 8-inch tablet will run $149.99 while the 10-inch option will cost $229.99. Both tablets come in either white or black and will begin shipping on September 20th.
SEATTLE–(BUSINESS WIRE)–(NASDAQ: AMZN)—Amazon today introduced all-new Fire HD tablets, designed from the ground up for entertainment with a stunning 8” or 10.1” widescreen HD display, an incredibly thin and light design, quad-core processor, stereo speakers with Dolby Audio, front- and rear-facing cameras, and microSD card support providing up to 128GB of expandable storage. Fire HD also introduces Fire OS 5 “Bellini,” which brings the best entertainment experience on any tablet, with an updated user interface, deep integration of Amazon-exclusive services, and hundreds of new and upgraded features and platform updates.
“A beautiful widescreen HD display, fast quad-core processor, expandable storage, Fire OS 5, exclusive features, and the Amazon content ecosystem of more than 38 million movies, TV shows, songs, books, apps, and games.”
With its 8” display, Fire HD 8 is the perfect tablet for web browsing, reading, or gaming. It is available in four color options: black, magenta, blue, and tangerine, and offers an incredible value at only $149.99. Fire HD 10 is Amazon’s largest tablet yet, with a 10.1” display that is perfect for widescreen entertainment. Available in two color options, black and white, it’s only $229.99. Fire HD tablets start shipping September 30.
New Fire HD features:
- Thin and light industrial design—at 7.7mm, Amazon’s thinnest tablets ever.
- Crisp and vivid HD display with over 1 million pixels; with a 16:10 widescreen aspect ratio, Fire HD 8 offers 15% more HD video viewing area and Fire HD 10 offers 22% more HD video viewing area than similarly-sized tablets with a 4:3 aspect ratio.
- Powerful quad-core processor running at up to 1.5 GHz for fast app switching and fluidity.
- As measured in tumble tests, Fire HD is almost 2x more durable than the latest generation iPad Air.
- Up to 128GB of expandable storage via microSD—enjoy even more videos, music, games, and photos while offline.
- Stereo speakers with Dolby Audio, which are custom-tuned for immersive, high-quality sound.
- Powered by the latest version of Fire OS—Fire OS 5 “Bellini”—with an updated user interface that is inspired by the beautiful layouts of high-quality magazines, making it fun to browse for your next movie, song, or book, or easy to pick up where you left off. Plus, Fire OS 5 includes hundreds of new and upgraded features, platform updates, and Amazon-exclusive services.
- First tablet with Amazon Underground, a one-of-a-kind app store experience where over $10,000 in apps, games, and even in-app items are actually free—including extra lives, unlocked levels, unlimited add-on packs, and more.
- Have you ever forgotten to download a movie ahead of a flight? For Prime members, On Deck automatically keeps your Fire tablet current with popular Prime movies and TV shows, as well as Amazon Original Series, so you always have something good to watch. Importantly, On Deck only uses the available storage on your tablet, opportunistically in a special shadow mode. When you download something, On Deck automatically makes room for your selected content—there’s no hassle of needing to clear out space yourself.
- The best reading experience on a tablet gets even better with Word Runner, a new feature designed to help you read faster—one word at a time—by bringing each word to the center of the screen to where your eyes are already focused. Word Runner gradually builds to your preferred reading speed, then algorithmically and automatically slows down for difficult words, punctuation, and paragraph breaks.
- For parents whose kids have outgrown Amazon FreeTime, Activity Center provides an easy way for them to see how their kids are spending time on their Fire tablet—from how much time their kids spend playing games to which websites they visit.
- Mayday Screen Sharing lets an Amazon expert guide you remotely through any feature on your screen, available 24×7, 365 days a year—for free.
- Access to over 38 million movies, TV shows, songs, books, magazines, Android apps and games, and more—with free, unlimited cloud storage for all Amazon content.
- Amazon-exclusive features customers love, including ASAP, X-Ray, Second Screen, Family Library, Amazon FreeTime, Prime Video downloads, and more.
- Video chat with friends and family with the 720p front-facing camera; take photos and capture videos in 1080p full HD with the 5MP rear-facing camera.
- Free, unlimited cloud storage for all photos taken on Fire devices, automatically backed-up wirelessly.
- All-day battery life delivers up to 8 hours of reading, browsing the web, listening to music, and watching video.
“Fire HD combines an incredibly thin and light design with powerful performance to deliver the best entertainment experience available on a tablet,” said Jeff Bezos, Amazon.com Founder and CEO. “A beautiful widescreen HD display, fast quad-core processor, expandable storage, Fire OS 5, exclusive features, and the Amazon content ecosystem of more than 38 million movies, TV shows, songs, books, apps, and games.”
Engineered by Amazon—Designed for Entertainment
Thinnest Fire Tablets Ever and Incredibly Light
Amazon’s thinnest tablets ever at 7.7mm, the new Fire HD tablets are incredibly light—in fact, at 432 grams, Fire HD 10 is lighter than iPad Air—making them easy to hold for hours so you can watch movies, read books, and play games comfortably.Crisp and Vivid HD Display
Constructed using fully laminated HD IPS displays with over 1 million pixels, Fire HD offers vivid image quality with less glare, high luminance, and wide viewing angles. Fire HD 8’s widescreen 16:10 aspect ratio also offers 15% more HD video viewing area than the new iPad mini 4; Fire HD 10 offers 22% more HD video viewing area than the latest generation iPad Air. This means that rather than shrinking a movie to fit the screen, Fire HD presents a widescreen image so you can enjoy the full picture—as it was intended, without compromise.Powerful Processing Performance
Fire HD is powered by a MediaTek quad-core processor running at up to 1.5GHz—resulting in a fast and fluid UI, and HD videos and high frame-rate games that run smoothly.2x More Durable—Stands Up To Everyday Life
With a Gorilla Glass display and a design that is engineered for best-in-class durability, you don’t have to worry about Fire HD breaking. In fact, as measured in lab tumble tests, Fire HD is almost 2x more durable than the latest generation iPad Air.Exceptional Audio
Fire HD is custom-tuned for immersive, high quality sound—it features two stereo speakers with Dolby Audio, including 5.1 virtual surround sound so that you can listen to videos or music at full volume and still hear crisp, clean sound.More Storage
Fire HD now offers expandable storage via a microSD card slot for up to 128GB of additional storage, so you can access even more content, including apps, movies, music, and photos while offline. When combined with free, unlimited cloud storage for Amazon content and for your personal photos taken with Fire devices, you’ll never be without a favorite movie, game, or photo album.Colorful New Accessories
Fire HD offers a new protective cover available in six colors that can stand in both portrait and landscape orientations, starting at $39.99. Also available for Fire HD 10 is a protective Bluetooth keyboard case that stands in three angles and is designed to provide a natural typing experience with full-sized keys, an integrated track pad, and shortcut keys that provide single-click access to email, media controls, and volume. The Fire HD 10 Keyboard Case is $99.99 and is available for pre-order at www.amazon.com/Fire-HD-Keyboard.Introducing Fire OS 5 “Bellini”
Fire HD is powered by the newest version of Fire OS—Fire OS 5 “Bellini”—which introduces hundreds of new and updated features. Fire OS starts with Android Lollipop, and improves upon it by deeply integrating Amazon’s hardware, platform, software, content, and cloud. For developers, if an app runs on Android, it can run on Fire OS with little to no work.Updated User Interface
Fire OS 5 “Bellini” introduces an updated user interface that provides the best entertainment experience on a tablet, making it easy to access your favorite apps or discover new content. The new home screen includes dedicated content pages for books, games and apps, video, music, audiobooks, and periodicals—each page presents an engaging layout akin to the beautiful pages of a magazine and presents your recent content as well as personalized suggestions for new entertainment. If you subscribe to services like Prime, Kindle Unlimited, or Audible, you can easily discover new content that you can access at no additional cost.On Deck—Ensures You’ll Always Have Something Good to Watch
Have you ever forgotten to download a movie ahead of a flight? For Prime members, On Deck automatically keeps your Fire tablet current with popular Prime movies and TV shows, as well as Amazon Original Series, so you always have something good to watch. Importantly, On Deck only uses the available storage on your tablet, opportunistically in a special shadow mode. When you download something, On Deck automatically makes room for your selected content—there’s no hassle of needing to clear out space yourself. This feature will be available via a free, over-the-air Fire OS update in the coming months.Amazon Underground—With Apps That Are Actually Free
Many apps and games that are marked as “free” turn out not to be completely free. They use in-app payments to charge you for special items or to unlock features or levels. Fire HD tablet owners have access to a one-of-a-kind app store experience where over $10,000 in apps, games, and even in-app items are actually free. Experience titles from top developers, including Disney, Rovio Entertainment, Gameloft, Zeptolab, and Sega of America without ever having to pay for the app or in-app purchases.Best Tablet for Reading—Now Even Better with Word Runner
Fire HD offers a crisp HD display, Amazon-exclusive features like the Bookerly reading font and Immersion Reading for audiobooks, and innovative new reading enhancements being introduced with Fire OS 5 “Bellini.” Read Faster—one word at a time—with Word Runner, a new speed reading feature that brings each word to the center of the screen to where your eyes are already focused. Word Runner has Dynamic Pacing so it gradually builds to your preferred reading speed and algorithmically and automatically slows down for difficult words, punctuation, and paragraph breaks. If you miss something, just tap and hold the screen to activate the brake, which instantly pauses Word Runner and lets you easily scroll back and pick up wherever you’d like. See a video: www.amazon.com/wordrunner.Activity Center—More Tools for Parents
For parents with kids who have outgrown Amazon FreeTime but are not yet ready to be without parental controls, Activity Center provides an easy way for parents to see how their kids are spending time on their tablet. When Activity Center is enabled, parents can visit a customized, secure page on their smartphone, tablet, or computer to review how much time their kids spend playing games, watching videos, and reading. Parents can also choose to view browser history via Activity Center in order to understand what sites their kids are visiting on the Internet, or can look at which specific apps, books, or videos their kids accessed. Activity Center will be available via a free, over-the-air Fire OS update in the coming months.Share Even More with Family Library
Family Library now allows families in an Amazon Household to share Prime benefits, including Prime Video, Kindle Owners’ Lending Library, free 2-day shipping on millions of items, and many other benefits. Family Library links your Amazon account to that of your spouse or partner so you can easily share apps, games, audiobooks, books, and Prime Video content within your household without changing accounts. Family Library lets family members share their content while using a single Fire tablet with different profiles, or across multiple devices—including Kindle e-readers, Fire tablets, and Amazon Fire TV—as well as on all of the other most popular devices and platforms with the free Kindle, Audible, and Amazon Video apps.World-Class Customer Service—For Free
Mayday revolutionized customer service with video chat on Fire HDX. Mayday Screen Sharing now brings Mayday-powered tech support to Fire HD tablets, delivering 24×7, 365 days a year technical assistance—for free. When you call in to customer service by phone, the Amazon expert can share your screen—with your permission—to draw on your screen, talk you through how to do a task, or to do it for you.Best Tablets for Prime
The new Fire HD user interface is perfect for helping Prime members discover the best selection of digital content—available at no additional cost. Prime Video provides streaming access to tens of thousands of movies and TV episodes, including Entourage, Orphan Black, and Downton Abbey, and is the only U.S. online subscription service that enables offline viewing. Plus, get access to award-winning Amazon Original programming like Transparent and Tumble Leaf, as well as new shows coming this fall. With Prime Music, you can listen ad-free to over a million songs, and with the Kindle Owners’ Lending Library, you can choose one book per month from more than 800,000 books to borrow for free with no due dates, including current and former best sellers. Included with Prime, you will also receive secure unlimited photo storage in Amazon Cloud Drive for your entire photo collection.All the Content
In addition to the Prime content, Amazon offers access to over 38 million movies, TV shows, songs, apps, games, books, audiobooks, and magazines—including hundreds of thousands of exclusives:
- Over 300,000 apps and games in the Amazon Appstore, including the most popular titles like Facebook, Netflix, iHeartRadio, Twitter, Angry Birds Stella, Minecraft: Pocket Edition, and more.
- Amazon Video offers hundreds of thousands of titles to buy or rent, including new release movies such as The Divergent Series: Insurgent, The Longest Ride and Hot Pursuit, or the latest TV programming like The Astronaut Wives Club, Pretty Little Liars, How to Get Away With Murder, and many more.
- Millions of songs are available with Amazon Music and purchases are stored for free in the cloud for access anytime, anywhere.
- Hundreds of magazines and newspapers are available for a free trial subscription, including popular titles like People, Vogue, Better Homes & Gardens, Sports Illustrated, Entertainment Weekly, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, and many more.
- Millions of books, including hundreds of thousands of titles that are exclusive to the Kindle Store. Over a million titles are $2.99 or less, over two million are $9.99 or less.
- With Kindle Unlimited, enjoy unlimited reading of over 1 million books including Diary of a Wimpy Kid, the Wayward Pines trilogy, and the entire Harry Potter series, and unlimited listening to a selection of thousands of audiobooks for just $9.99 a month.
- Over 180,000 professionally-narrated audiobook titles from Audible, with free samples to listen to before buying.
- Amazon FreeTime Unlimited offers more than 10,000 books, videos, and educational apps and games that have been curated for age-appropriateness for kids—starting at $2.99 per month.
- Now you can watch the big game, breaking news, and more live with a subscription to Sling TV—which includes channels such as ESPN, CNN, TBS, HGTV, AMC, and more. Plus with apps like HBO NOW and SHOWTIME, customers no longer need a cable subscription to access their favorite TV shows and movies on Fire tablets.
All the Features Customers Expect from Amazon
Fire HD is not a gadget—it is a seamlessly integrated service that combines all of the features that customers love about Amazon, Prime, and Fire devices, including:
- Instant streaming with ASAP—No more waiting for movies and TV shows to buffer. ASAP (Advanced Streaming and Prediction) predicts which Amazon movies and TV episodes you want to watch and has them ready for you before you even hit play, so videos start instantly.
- Easily find out who that actor is—X-Ray for Movies and TV Shows is available directly on Fire HD—simply tap the display and get instant access to actor biographies in the scene, trivia, soundtracks, and more on tens of thousands of movies and TV episodes. X-Ray for Movies and TV Shows is exclusive to Amazon Video and powered by IMDb—the #1 movie website in the world.
- Simple to set-up and easy to use—Arrives pre-registered so you can simply turn it on and start enjoying your entertainment within minutes.
- Screen sharing—Tap the “fling” icon on your Fire tablet to send video and audio to your compatible big-screen TV using Second Screen.
- Personal photos and videos—Play slideshows and choose a favorite album for your home screen image. Photos or videos you take via phone or tablet can be automatically uploaded to Amazon Cloud Drive, making them accessible on all of your Fire devices, and on compatible iOS and Android devices.
- Whispersync—Amazon’s Whispersync technology saves and synchronizes your Amazon video, book, and music library across all Amazon devices. Start watching a movie on an iPhone or a Fire tablet, and pick up where you left off on Amazon Fire TV.
- Enjoy on hundreds of devices—Buy a movie, TV show, book, or song on Amazon once, and enjoy it everywhere—on hundreds of devices, including iOS, Android, and Fire OS devices.
- 1-Tap Archive—Automatically backs up your Amazon digital content in the cloud so you never need to worry about losing content.
- Amazon FreeTime—Available exclusively on Amazon devices, FreeTime provides innovative parental controls that encourage learning before play and that help manage screen time.
- Free month of Amazon Prime—Amazon continues to invest in bringing Prime members new movies, TV shows, songs, and books to enjoy at no additional cost. Prime members enjoy unlimited, commercial-free, instant streaming of thousands of movies and TV episodes with Prime Video, and unlimited photo storage in Amazon Cloud Drive. Eligible customers can get a free 30-day trial of Amazon Prime when they purchase a Fire HD tablet.
The Fire Family
Fire HD 8 is available for pre-order beginning today with 8GB or 16GB of memory starting at $149.99 at www.amazon.com/FireHD8 and comes in four fun color options: black, magenta, blue, and tangerine. Fire HD 8 starts shipping September 30. Fire HD 10 is also available for pre-order beginning today with 16GB or 32GB of memory starting at $229.99 at www.amazon.com/FireHD10. It is available in two color options: black starts shipping September 30, and white starts shipping in the coming weeks.
Customers can also purchase Fire HD protective covers starting at $39.99 and a protective Bluetooth keyboard case for Fire HD 10 for $99.99.
Amazon also today announced the all-new Fire tablet, Fire Kids Edition, and a new Amazon Fire TV. To read the press release about the all-new Fire visit www.amazon.com/fire-pr; to read about the new Fire Kids Edition, visit www.amazon.com/kids-edition-pr; to read about the all-new Amazon Fire TV, visit www.amazon.com/fire-tv-pr.
About Amazon
Amazon.com opened on the World Wide Web in July 1995. The company is guided by four principles: customer obsession rather than competitor focus, passion for invention, commitment to operational excellence, and long-term thinking. Customer reviews, 1-Click shopping, personalized recommendations, Prime, Fulfillment by Amazon, AWS, Kindle Direct Publishing, Kindle, Fire tablets, Fire TV, Amazon Echo, and Alexa are some of the products and services pioneered by Amazon.
Contacts
Amazon.com, Inc.
Media Hotline, 206-266-7180
amazon-pr@amazon.com
www.amazon.com/pr
Come comment on this article: Amazon announces new line of Kindle Fire HD tablets with Fire OS 5
Snapchat is bringing content from the NFL to its Live Stories feature
The NFL has deals in place to push content to Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and other places, and now it’s heading to Snapchat. The ephemeral messaging app made a one-year deal with the league that will deliver photos and videos to its Live Stories feature. According to Re/code, the agreement runs through the Super Bowl in February and will feature at least one Live Story each weekend. There’s also the possibility for more content centered around Monday and Thursday games. In fact, tomorrow night’s Denver vs. Kansas City game will be covered by the app.
There’s one important catch, though: there won’t be any broadcast footage in the app. Someone may capture sideline video (with a phone, etc.) and post it, but don’t expect high-quality highlights like you can watch elsewhere. In the past, Snapchat has used Live Stories to cover big events like New York Fashion Week, music festivals and more, so tacking on football coverage at the start of the season isn’t too much of a surprise. And as Re/code notes, decided to partner with the league rather than handle the coverage on its own could bring exclusive access on game days.
[Image credit: Sam Greenwood/Getty Images]
Filed under:
Internet
Source:
Re/code
Tags: app, content, football, livestories, nfl, snapchat, social
The Emmy-winning studios behind American Horror Story’s freaks
The body in the brown box looks cold at first glance. The blue-green web of veins in her pale white legs can be traced down to her feet. Her flaming red hair looks like it hasn’t been brushed for weeks and her torso is split wide open. Justin Raleigh reaches in and plucks out her intestines and liver. He knows her anatomy all too well. It’s been built from scratch for an upcoming TV series in his workshop in Monrovia, California.
Raleigh’s been in the business of creating the perfect Hollywood scare for the last two decades. At Fractured FX, his special makeup effects workshop, he works with a small crew to create creatures that don’t exist, prosthetics that transform the human form and bodies that duplicate an actor’s anatomy with uncanny precision. From Insidious and 300: Rise of an Empire to The Knick and Boardwalk Empire, the makeup and prosthetics designer’s work in both films and episodic television has created effects that are unsettling yet enthralling.
The impact of his work peaked in Freak Show, the fourth season of Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk’s FX drama American Horror Story. The sideshow characters in the most recent chapter of this anthology of blood, gore and terror weren’t easy to watch, but they were hard to look away from. They captured the emotional and physical complexities of people with medical oddities. “Most of them were based on a real character,” says Raleigh, who recently won a Creative Arts Emmy for his work on the show. “A lot of it came from real abnormalities and references — from the Mütter Museum [a medical museum in Philadelphia], various carnival freak show books and references in the market. For the most part, we pull from reality and augment it with a little bit of fantasy.”
Raleigh’s studio has the tools to build robotic heads and armatures, but he mostly relies on the power of physical effects. Before turning to computer-generated imagery for augmentation, he molds life casts and builds prosthetics. For American Horror Story, he sculpted the deformities that helped define the characters. He made a foam rubber piece to give Lobster Boy, one of the central characters played by Evan Peters, his claw-like extremities. He created a small parasitic twin that was static on the back of actor Wes Bentley’s head so he could pull off the role of Edward Mordrake, a character based on a 19th century man with the same name who had two faces, front and back. The head was later augmented with visual effects.
Wes Bentley, who plays Edward Mordrake on American Horror Story, receives a parasitic twin.
The highlight of the show, however, was the conjoined-twin sisters Dot and Bette Tattler. For the two-in-one character played by Sarah Paulson, a recurring name in American Horror Story’s stellar ensemble, Raleigh’s studio created two animatronic heads, one for each identical twin with a distinct personality. With a silicone impression of Paulson as a basis, the team duplicated her features to build the radio-controlled heads that had moving mouths and eyes that could blink and look around.
While the close-up shots of the Tattler sisters were essentially created with split-screen visual effects, for any of the wider and overhead shots, Paulson worked with Raleigh’s makeshift heads. His team made a custom, lightweight carbon fiber structure that was harnessed across Paulson’s waist to support the weight of the additional head on her shoulders. After completing her performance as one dominant character, she would swap the robotic prosthetic and switch roles to play the same scene as the other twin. “The twins were a complicated character,” says Raleigh. “It was a combination between visual effects and practical effects.”
To add that extra layer of believability to the Tattler twins and other Freak Show inhabitants, the creators relied on visual effects from FuseFX, an Emmy award-winning studio in Burbank, California. It’s where Mordrake’s parasitic twin found expression and Dot and Bette’s conjoined existence came to life. The twins were composited in Nuke, a post-production software. To make the connected heads appear as realistic as possible, the team built digital connective tissue that bound the sisters, made new bones that defined the structures and gave the heads functionality with muscles down to the necks. Week after week, the studio found a way for the twins to live as two individuals in a single human body.
According to Jason Piccioni, the visual effects supervisor at FuseFX, the pace and power of new machines has led to the rise of visual effects in episodic television in recent years. “The challenge in American Horror Story is always turning around an episode that is up to our standards and up to Ryan [Murphy’s] standards every week,” says Piccioni, whose team also won an Emmy for the show. “By the time we get into a season, we can turn around an episode in a week in post [production].”
Justin Raleigh checks on the custom-made animatronic head for Sarah Paulson’s twin characters, Dot and Bette Tattler.
Work on Freak Show has since wrapped, but back at Raleigh’s studio in Monrovia, there are more bodies to build and bring to life with a suite of practical effects. The untimely August heat makes the smell of alcohol solvents stronger in the workshop. Spray bottles, pastes, plastic containers, brushes and sponges clutter the tables that line the floor. At one end of the room, Raleigh stands over that brown box with the silicone-based life cast body double. After putting the molded intestines back, he points to the head covered in human hair. “All the little hairs are put in one by one with a little needle,” he says. “We insert it so it looks like it’s growing out of the skin.”
“We have a combination of modern 3D design and printing married with a lot of traditional sculpting.”
Justin Raleigh, Fractured FX
Minutes later, he gently closes the lid of the box and walks into a room where two people paint another silicone body that lays face-down on a table. As they laboriously cover the seam where two halves of a life cast come together to make one human-like whole, a 3D printer whizzes in the background. “We do have a big combination of modern 3D design and printing married with a lot of traditional sculpting and artisans who work hand-in-hand with both sides of it,” says Raleigh. “We can create things that are completely symmetrical, highly machined-looking parts that we would never be able to create by hand. And then in some aspects, when we want perfect skin texture, it doesn’t work and it’s better to have an artisan do that by hand in clay.”
Slideshow-320254
Raleigh’s artistry allows him to transform the artificial human form with his hands, but there are limits to what he can do. For that reason, he’s quick to adopt new tricks and techniques that help him achieve the most realistic effects. “One of the problems we’ve had in the past is creating hyper-detailed sculptures of someone in a screaming expression or some kind of extreme expression,” he says. “It’s hard to live cast someone like that. But now we’re starting to develop technology that can scan the person’s expression. [We can] 3D print that exact data and then re-mold it and re-sculpt it. That’s kind of the best process. So for things we only used to do by hand, now we can get the best of both worlds.”
These worlds — makeup and visual effects — can continue to survive in isolation, but both Raleigh and Piccioni believe the best results are achieved through collaboration. “I’m a big believer in the skillsets that all the disciplines bring to the table. To do one skillset in a different department ultimately I think would be detrimental to the production,” says Piccioni. “Could you do it without makeup? I think you can. I don’t think I would want to.”
[Images credit: Fractured FX]
Filed under:
Home Entertainment, HD
Tags: AmericanHorrorStory, emmy, EmmyAwards, fracturedfx, freakshow, FuseFX, hdpostcross, jasonpiccioni, justinraleigh, uk-feature, VFX, video, visualeffects
To scale Solar System model built across seven miles of Nevada desert
If you treat the Earth as a marble, what would an accurate, to-scale model of the Solar System actually look like? Something much larger and expansive than a textbook illustration would suggest. To explain the sheer scale of our planetary system, Wylie Overstreet, Alex Gorosh and some friends decided to build their own model at a dry lakebed in Nevada. Using a reported scale of 1 astronomical unit per 176 metres, the group leveraged seven miles of empty desert to plot the planets and etch their orbital lines into the dirt. Sure, you can’t print it out or keep it on your desk, but it’s a novel idea and does a fantastic job of putting our Solar System into perspective. After you’ve finished watching the short below, we recommend heading here to see how it was all put together.
https://player.vimeo.com/video/139407849
Filed under:
Science
Via:
Wired
Source:
To Scale: The Solar System
Tags: desert, model, ScaleModel, solarsystem, space
The BBC’s Micro:bit computers won’t reach kids until next year
As part of a wider initiative aimed at teaching children the basics of computing and programming, the BBC created the Micro:bit development board (with a little help from some high-profile partners). Unveiled in its final form this July after years in the making, the broadcaster had originally planned to send out the first batch of Micro:bits to teachers this month, before issuing one million of the things to Year 7 students across the country in October. The BBC has said today, however, that a problem with the power supply identified on a small number of the microcomputers means that timeline has been pushed back by a couple of months.
“As a result of our rigorous testing process, we’ve decided to make some minor revisions to the device — getting it right for children and teachers before we manufacture one million units is our priority,” a BBC spokesperson said. The new timetable will see the first Micro:bits reach teachers sometime before Christmas, while Years 7s will have to wait until “early in the new year” to see what homebrew projects they can cook up using the free, tricked-out microcomputers.
Filed under:
Misc
Source:
BBC
Tags: bbc, bbcmicro, bbcmicrobit, coding, education, microbit, microcomputer, programming
Amazon Debuts New Fire TV with 4K Video & Alexa Voice Assistant
Amazon today announced the follow-up to last year’s Fire TV streaming device, simply dubbed “The New Amazon Fire TV.” The new $99 box is getting a handful of new features, including 4K ultra HD video streaming, the addition of the company’s Alexa voice assistant into the operating system, and a processing boost of 75 percent over last year’s model.
The introduction of Alexa will allow customers to play their music, check on the score of a sporting event, and see how the weather is outside, all while using their voice. Speaking into the Fire TV remote will bring the voice assistant up — who made her debut in the Amazon Echo last fall — and she will eventually become more acclimated to each customer’s speech patterns, vocabulary, and personal preferences.
In addition to 4K ultra HD streaming, the company promises higher quality basic HD video for everyone who doesn’t have a television set that supports 4K settings. Amazon has also introduced expandable storage, allowing customers to increase the 8GB of on-device storage all the way up to 128GB for a variety of apps and games.
“The team has packed an incredible amount of technology and innovation into a tiny package,” said Jeff Bezos, Amazon.com Founder and CEO. “The new Fire TV includes 4K support, more processing power, Alexa integration, the largest selection, and exclusive features—for less than $100. The new Fire TV Stick with Voice Remote brings voice search and Alexa integration for less than $50. These are powerful devices at incredible prices.”
Concerning games specifically, the company also announced an entirely new Amazon Fire TV Gaming Edition, which is essentially today’s newly announced Fire TV bundled alongside the new Fire TV Gaming Controller, a 32GB microSD card, and Shovel Knight and Disney’s Ducktales pre-installed. The new gaming controller includes voice commands and search like the traditional Fire TV remote, plus access to Alexa, up to 90 hours of battery life that use AA batteries, and an audio headphone jack.
With a launch date of October 5, both bundles of the new Fire TV can be pre-ordered beginning today, with the traditional Amazon Fire TV retailing at $99 and the Amazon Fire TV Gaming Edition going for $139. The company also introduced a new bundle of the Fire TV Stick for $49 that now includes the voice remote, which will begin shipping on October 22.
AIVAnet 